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Gkids Picks ‘My Life As A Zucchini’, Switzerland’s Oscar Entry

DEADLINE August 31th, 2016 | By Erik Pedersen

Gkids has acquired North American rights to My Life As A Zucchini, Switzerland’s entry for the Foreign Language Film Oscar race. The distributor, which has piled up eight Academy Award noms for Best Animated Feature since 2009 including two last year, will give the French-language pic an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run in the fall, followed by a national rollout next year.

From Swiss first-time feature director Claude Barras, My Life As A Zucchini premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar at Cannes in May as Ma vie de Courgette. Céline Sciamma penned the script that centers on Zucchini, a boy who’s dealing with his mother’s sudden death. A kindly police officer accompanies him to his new foster home, which is filled with other orphans his age. After some initial struggles, and with help from the cop and Zucchini’s newfound friends, the boy eventually learns to trust and love, as he searches for a new family of his own.

My Life As A Zucchini won the Grand Prize and the Audience Award at the 2016 Annecy International Animation Film Festival and will have its North American premiere at Toronto next month. As usual for Gkids, it will be released both in its original French and an English dubbed version. Zucchini is produced by RITA Productions, Blue Spirit Productions, Gebeka Films and KNM, in coproduction with the Radio Télévision Suisse, SRG-SSR, France 3 Cinéma, Rhône Alpes Cinéma and Helium Films. Indie Sales is handling international sales. The deal was negotiated by Eric Beckman for Gkids and Nicolas Eschbach, head of sales and co-founder of Indie Sales.